Did Amazon Just Increase Placement Fees? Yes - and Most Sellers Are Looking at the Wrong Cost

If your inbound costs feel higher this year, you’re not imagining it.

Amazon’s 2026 fee updates introduced higher inbound placement service fees and higher FBA fulfillment fees - and for many sellers, that has quietly changed their unit economics.

But the real issue isn’t that fees went up.

The real issue is that most sellers are still making inbound decisions based on shipping cost alone, instead of understanding their true total landed cost.

And in 2026, that mistake is expensive.

First: What Sellers Call “Placement Fees” Is Amazon’s Inbound Placement Service Fee

What most sellers refer to as “placement fees” is officially Amazon’s Inbound Placement Service Fee.

This fee is applied when you choose to send inventory to fewer fulfillment centers (minimal splits) instead of letting Amazon distribute inventory across multiple FCs.

In simple terms:

• Fewer destinations = higher per-unit placement fee

• More destinations = lower or zero placement fee

Amazon raised these fees for 2026 - particularly for standard-size items - which means the cost of choosing convenience is now higher than it was last year.

At the same time, Amazon also increased FBA fulfillment fees starting January 15, 2026, adding another ~$0.08 per unit on average.

Individually, these increases don’t sound dramatic.

At scale, they are.

What Amazon Is Really Doing

Amazon’s fulfillment network has become massive, complex, and expensive to operate.

Their strategy is clear:

They want inventory positioned closer to customers, with better forecasting, better carton builds, better labeling, and less manual intervention inside their network.

Placement fees are not a punishment.

They’re a behavioral lever.

Amazon is pricing operational friction into the system.

If your inbound creates more work for their network, you pay for it.

The Mistake Most Sellers Are Making

Most sellers look at inbound decisions like this:

“Which option has the lowest placement cost?”

That’s the wrong question.

The correct question is:

“Which option has the lowest total landed cost per unit?”

Because what actually matters is:

Total landed cost =

• Inbound freight

• Prep & labor

• Placement service fee (if applicable)

• FBA fulfillment fee

• Storage

• Any rework, defect, or exception handling

And here’s the part most sellers miss:

In many cases, paying Amazon’s placement fee is actually cheaper than shipping “optimized.”

We see this constantly.

A seller chooses Amazon’s optimized placement option to avoid placement fees.They ship to 4–6 different FCs.

They pay:

• more in LTL or SPD shipping

• more in warehouse labor

• more in receiving and reconciliation overhead

• more in operational complexity

When we run the math, the “cheaper” shipping option ends up costing more per unit than simply paying Amazon’s placement fee and shipping to fewer locations.

Amazon’s fee looks expensive in isolation.

But freight fragmentation is often far more expensive.

Placement Fees Are Now a Strategy Decision

Placement is no longer a checkbox.

It’s a margin decision.

For every major SKU group, sellers should be asking:

• Is this a high-velocity SKU that benefits from wide regional distribution?

• Is this a bulky or heavy SKU where multi-node shipping explodes freight costs?

• Is this a fragile or complex SKU that increases handling risk with more splits?

Some SKUs justify placement fees.

Some benefit from optimized placement.

Most catalogs require a hybrid approach.

There is no universal best option.

There is only the best option per SKU class.

Why 2026 Makes This More Important Than Ever

With:

• higher placement fees

• higher fulfillment fees

• tighter storage rules

• stricter inbound compliance

• and rising freight volatility

Your margin is now determined as much by your logistics architecture as by your product.

Two sellers with the same SKU can have radically different profitability depending on:

• how their cartons are built

• how their shipments are structured

• how their placement strategy is designed

• how clean their inbound execution is

Amazon has turned logistics into a competitive advantage.

How High-Performing Sellers Are Responding

The best operators are doing three things:

1. They model landed cost by SKU group

Not by catalog. Not by intuition. By data.

They know exactly which SKUs can absorb placement fees and which can’t.

2. They build shipments for outcomes, not convenience

Carton consistency, labeling accuracy, prep discipline, and shipment structure now directly impact cost.

Sloppy inbound gets punished.

3. They stop letting inbound be an afterthought

Inbound is now a profit lever.

Not a back-office task.

The Role of Your 3PL in This New Fee Environment

This is exactly why strong 3PL partnerships matter more in 2026 than ever before.

A modern 3PL is no longer just:

• receiving

• labeling

• and shipping

A real 3PL partner helps you:

• model landed cost scenarios

• design inbound strategies by SKU class

• optimize freight vs placement tradeoffs

• build compliant, scalable inbound flows

• and protect your margins as Amazon’s network evolves

This is how we approach fulfillment at West Coast Prep 3PL.

We don’t just move boxes.

We design inbound systems.

Because in today’s environment, the sellers who win are the ones who understand that logistics is not a cost center - it’s a growth engine.

Final Takeaway

Yes - Amazon increased placement-related fees and fulfillment fees for 2026.

But the bigger shift is this:

Inbound is now a strategic function.

And more often than not, the sellers who think they’re saving money by avoiding placement fees are actually paying more in freight, labor, and operational drag.

If you’re scaling and your margins are tightening, the solution usually isn’t better PPC.

It’s better logistics.

If you want a second set of eyes on your inbound strategy - or want help modeling your true landed cost by SKU - our team at West Coast Prep 3PL is happy to walk through it with you.

No pitch.

No pressure.

Just clean math and real-world fulfillment experience.

Because in 2026, the sellers who understand their backend will outscale the ones who don’t.